stock, can afford a steady demand.

About the passenger carriages, which every one can see and examine for
himself, there is not much to be said. On the Continent, where they cannot
afford to use mahogany, they use sheet-iron and papier-machee for the panels;
in England, mahogany chiefly in the first class. When we began, stage
coaches were imitated; there are some of the old cramped style still to be
seen on the Richmond line; then came enormous cages--pleasant in summer,
fearfully cold in winter, without fires, which have not been introduced in
England, although they are found in the north of Europe and America. A
medium size has now come into favour, of which some fine specimens are to be
seen in the Hyde Park Exhibition.

On the Great Northern line some second-class carriages have been introduced,
varnished, without paint, and very well they look. Economy again, and the
increase of branches, have led to the use of composite carriages for first
and second-class passengers all on one body. These, which were in use years
ago on the northern coal lines, are now revived and improved.

The Camden station has received an entirely new feature by the completion of
the line to the docks and to Fenchurch Street, with stations at Islington,
Hackney, and Bow. Already an immense omnibus traffic has been obtained--a
sort of traffic which produces the same effect on engines as on horses. They
are worn out rapidly by the continual stoppages. But horses show wear and
tear directly, whereas iron and brass cannot speak except through increased
expenses and diminished dividends.

Leaving Camden, at which trains stop only on arriving, we swiftly pass
Kilburn, where an omnibus station is to be established for the benefit of the
rising population of citizens, to Willesden, where the junction line through